profits at the North's most popular visitor attraction, Titanic Belfast, increased last year by 57pc to £1.25m (€1.44m).

New accounts show that the firm enjoyed the increase in pre-tax profits as revenues increased marginally from £11.6m to £11.9m in the 12 months to the end of March last year.

The directors' report states that in the year under review, the centre attracted 638,000 visitors.

The visitor attraction celebrates Belfast as the birth-place of the ill-fated Titanic. In its four years of operation over 2.6 million visitors have paid to enter the attraction.

According to the directors' report "the company has enjoyed a successful fourth year as a top visitor attraction in Northern Ireland with visitors to the iconic Titanic exhibition increasing by 1pc between March 2015 and March 2016".

The centre opened in March 2012 and has started to repay some of the investment made by Donegal man Pat Doherty, with a dividend of £3m last year.

The directors state that there continues to be strong international interest in the story of the Titanic with 77pc of visitors coming from outside the North in 2015/16.

The directors also reveal that events revenue exceeded budget by 22pc during the year, with banqueting and conference revenue exceeding budget by 1pc.

The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of £703,188.

Security costs for the year hit €172,187; legal and professional fees were €195,223; cleaning costs amounted to £257,250 along with marketing costs totalling €154,128.

Staff employed last year increased from 153 to 146, with staff costs increasing from £2.45m to £2.6m. The firm recorded a post-tax profit of £901,720 after paying corporation tax of £358,255.